This chapter introduced and explored ways for teachers to include lessons on the different types of intelligences in their classrooms. Armstrong advocates using a simple, direct five-minute introduction to MI theory followed by a visual of what he calls an “MI Pizza” that describes the eight intelligences. He asks students whether or not they consider themselves intelligent as a way to “hook” students into the topic. He also emphasizes the importance of teaching the MI model in all eight intelligences and provides a list of different examples and descriptions of how this can be done. Virginia’s CTE Resource Center provides a list of different ways for both students and teachers to learn about different intelligences as well as assess their own.
Synthesis
Laura Pulito
Just about everyone in our class agreed that it is important to recognize the individual multiple intelligences of our students and to incorporate these intelligences regularly in the classroom. Scholastic.com provides a list of suggestions of activities as they relate to preferred intelligences. Many of us also mentioned the importance of having students become aware of their own intelligences (if they aren’t already aware of them) and to provide them with time to reflect upon their intelligences and to allow them to build upon them through enriching lessons that are tailored to their preferred methods of learning. At the same time, we recognized that it was also valuable to encourage students to devote some time to working on strengthening their “weaker” intelligences. In order for us to effectively encourage this as teachers, we need to take student input into high consideration and to always adhere to the needs of our students. While we agreed that it was important for students to be aware of all the different kinds of multiple intelligences, some of us were concerned that teaching our students about multiple intelligences would take away from the valuable time we have to teach content. Another concern many of us had regarding the teaching of multiple intelligences was that a lot of the activities the chapter suggests are geared more towards the elementary grades. We figured that by the time students reach the secondary level of their education, they will (hopefully) already have a good idea of which of their personal intelligences are strongest, but we want to make sure that they understand that it is normal and a good thing that all students have different strengths. Thus, as secondary education teachers, it will be most important for us to continue to let our students thrive through their preferred intelligences while giving them time to thoroughly understand and reflect upon their different learning styles.
In this chapter I learned that children benefit from instructional approaches that help them reflect upon their own learning experiences. They can reflect on their own learning experiences and relate them to multiple intelligences. To have students do this, a teacher has to introduce multiple intelligences by explaining it. I also learned that it is best to describe the intelligences using simple terms and by being inclusive, for example by saying who likes reading? I learned that as a teacher I should strive to teach students the multiple intelligences using all eight intelligences. This chapter impacted the way that I would teach the meaning behind multiple intelligences. I would think more about how I was going to introduce each one that would be inclusive since it would be easy to say something like “who is good at math? If yes you have logical intelligence” but that would leave out students that aren’t good at math or who feel as though they are bad at math. I would also have to do a lot of planning to make sure that besides being inclusive, I am also introducing each intelligence in a way that students with different intelligences understand. I have to introduce each intelligence using all eight intelligences which will not be an easy task. I would have to plan a time to introduce the multiple intelligences instead of introducing them when I felt it was necessary or when there was extra time at the end of a class period, for example on a test day.
Cheyenne
The MI Pizza is my new favorite thing and I will use it forever in everything I do. I even drew it in a notebook and surrounded it with all the suggested questions because I want to remember it. Like, it is so so so important for students, for everyone really, to know that they are intelligent in some way, and the MI Pizza is an incredible way to do that. There is not a single person in this world that can answer ‘no’ to every single one of those questions, and it really highlights all the different ways that someone is intelligent. Maybe you’re more in tune with one area than another, but no matter what, the chances of you not fitting somewhere in every single category even a little bit are slim-to-none. On the other hand, I’m not a huge fan of the activities it suggests to give students a better understanding of the MI concept, mostly because they’re all fairly time consuming. These are things that are far better suited for younger students, probably in the elementary level. In middle and high school, there just doesn’t seem like enough time at all to be able to take a few days to do these activities, and the reading suggestion for high school students doesn’t seem very inclusive towards non-linguistic intelligences. The MI Pizza is a fairly simple concept that can be looked at in a single class day and gives students the base they need to potentially start looking into it on their own. I can support and encourage students to look into it outside of class, but to spend too much time on it would, to me, be taking away from other actual class content.
Lydia
This chapter is about the fact that all students should understand that they are all intelligent in some way. If a student has a weakness in one area that does not necessarily mean that they are dumb. Students must understand that they are also smart in a variety of ways as well. This will affect me because it will push me to show others that they all have different abilities and they can all learn in different ways. As a teacher I must also encourage students to learn about their different intelligences. As a Social Studies teacher I could start off the first week with having the students learn what they are best at and to show their diversity. Some things that I could do to help students become interested in my lessons is to bring things into the classroom that will pique the student’s interests. Some of these things will include different field trips, or bring in a career day that will show that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Not only just teaching students about intelligences during the first week, I must find a way to incorporate the eight intelligences into the way that I teach. This will affect my classroom because if students have different choices of learning they will like the choices that they have. Another way to incorporate fun and interesting ways to learn in the classroom is create games that will highlight the eight ways of learning and being intelligent. Another interesting way to show students different ways of learning is to set up stations that correspond with the eight intelligences. I thought this was a creative way to bring new and interesting activities and learning tools into the lesson.
Cory
This chapter looked at the importance of learning multiple intelligences. But what made it less beneficial is that it focused mainly on elementary education when we are secondary education. But this is completely understandable. You need to build up your students when they are young. Our student’s self-esteems may be at their best when they are very young kids, probably about kindergarten. This means that we need to build their confidence and keep it at a young age, and this can be done by teaching them about the multiple intelligence model. If we point out which student’s intelligence is their strength when they are young, we can foster both their strengths and weaknesses. We can tailor our lessons to teach to a kid’s strength, but we can’t forget about their weaknesses. If we tell them they are stupid in a certain area, then they will continue to believe that. If we tell them and teach them how to work on a certain intelligence, then they will have the ability and motivation to do so. But this has to come at an early age. If we try to do so when they are in high school, they may reject what we have to say. At that age, they have embedded in their brains that they are truly incompetent in certain areas, and this is ridiculous in my opinion. Every student has the ability to learn just about anything, they just need the motivation and believe that they can. Yes, some things come easier to some rather than others, but they can still get to the same point. It’s similar to a famous quote I read on my CA’s board the other day, “A 12 minute mile is the same distance as a 6 minute mile.”
Dominick
This chapter was geared more towards elementary and early childhood majors, but still managed to catch my interest. As a future educator I feel that this chapter should be read by all aspiring teachers because the author does bring up some interesting points. The author brings up a scenario in which a classroom of elementary school students are asked if they think they are smart. Everyone of them raises their hands, but later down the road in high school if a class is asked if they feel they are intelligent less than half the class does not raise their hands. In elementary school kids are going through the most important parts of their development as young learners. They need to be taught all of the different kinds of intelligences. Their strongest intelligence should also be identified early on and encouraged. It is a teacher’s responsibility to do everything in their power to help a child develop their strongest intelligence. Teachers can identify these different types of intelligences through classroom games and activities. However, they are also responsible for encouraging students to pursue the other intelligences as well. Students should never be told that they should not pursue a type of intelligence that they are not the strongest in. Students should be encouraged to pursue it because that’s what makes students well rounded. We must help them to bring balance to their intelligences, but also to encourage the one that they are the strongest in. Every student possesses all of the intelligences to some degree, it is our responsibility to continue building upon that balance among the others.
Sara
In chapter four of Multiple Intelligences emphasis is put on the students input. By teaching students what the intelligences are they will be able to identify with them and understand which one works best for them. While it may not be possible, especially in a math classroom, to spend a lot of time on the intelligences, I think it is important that students understand what they are and how they apply to them. By asking the students where they think they fall and what they think they need it gives them a new perspective. Where they are used to teachers constant telling them what they need, they now have the chance to instead say what they need. This allows students to reflect on themselves and truly think about what they need and what is going to work for them. Of course if a teacher does take the time to learn the student’s different intelligences, they then also need to back them up. It is not enough to just know what works for the students, teachers than need to actually incorporate this into the lesson. By having this interaction and by teachers actually following through with it, it provides a sort of trust between the student and the teacher. It shows the student that the teacher is listening and truly wants them to succeed. This in turn could result in a student trying harder in a class because they know that the teacher cares is doing everything they can to help the student.
Katelin
This chapter explained how I could try to have students realize what each intelligences are and have them figure out which ones they have the most of. The first point would be to prove to them that they are all smart and have all eight intelligences in them, by creating questions to ask that are almost a universal yes. When making lesson plans, a goal is to ask myself how each of the eight intelligences are covered. Another step would be to ask students to reflect, which is always a great idea, and have them try to figure out where each intelligence was implemented. An even better idea is to ask students what method worked the best for them, or they preferred the most. I liked all the examples of how to put multiple intelligences into the classroom, but I still find it hard to do these with math. Math is very straightforward and having a career day is really not relevant unless it is a career that involves math. The examples I thought were all great and creative examples, but so so many I just kept saying that did not seem relevant to my classroom. I liked how the chapter ended with how if you internalize the theory, they will start using the vocabulary and make sense of their learning more. This is true, but again, we discussed how hard it is to put so much content into so little time, but we want to try to incorporate learning styles also. I just want to know how to do everything and still get it all done.
Laura
I really appreciated this chapter because I think it’s important for students to be aware of the different kinds of multiple intelligences. I cannot recall any of my teachers (in elementary, middle school, or high school) ever mentioning Gardner’s theory, but I truly wish they had. I think that a teacher can foster a positive and respectful learning environment by introducing the concept of multiple intelligences and having students partake in an activity that explores the different intelligences. If students understand that everyone learns differently and get the chance to “test out” activities related to the different intelligences, they will be more likely to respect one another and may even gain a greater sense of self-esteem. For example, a mathematically inclined student might realize that his peer who isn’t so great at math has a talent for music. If the class hadn’t been introduced to the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, they may not have known about one another’s intelligences or talents and maybe wouldn’t have recognized their own intelligences as valuable. I do think that the secondary ed. classroom is more limited than the elementary school classroom in its potential ways to explore multiple intelligences (at least based on the examples given in this chapter), but I definitely think it’s still possible and important to make students aware of MI at the secondary level. It would be great for kids to learn about them sooner, however, so as to promote respect for the different intelligences sooner in schooling, but I understand that that may not always happen and that they could and should still be emphasized at the middle and high school levels.
Shane
This chapter is primarily about getting young students to understand themselves. I found it super interesting how they did the experiment about how many kids feel they are intelligent when they are little compared to how many people think they are intelligent when they get older. I think as kids are younger teachers do a great job of emphasizing that they are all smart in their own ways and that they can all be intelligent and grow as learners. The part where kids found someone in their intelligence area and having them as a role model seemed like a great idea to me. It goes to show that all kids can have strengths and weaknesses and that even famous people have been through ups and downs. As kids get older they shouldn’t feel less intelligent they just need teachers who can properly motivate them and I think that is why this resonated with me. As a teacher it will be my job to do my job teaching and give them the proper information and tools, but to also give them hope, set goals and keep them on the right path as students. I think that if the majority of students say they feel less intelligent when they are older means the teachers are doing a bad job. All intelligences need to be seen in the same light whether they are popular at that given moment or not. We need to express to our students that every intelligence is important. All students need to get the concept that they are intelligent in one way or another.
Rhi
I loved the quote that came about, “children go into school as question marks and leave school as periods” (p.45). I thought that was a really cool way to describe students growth from the beginning to the end, although I disagree a little that it just ends with a period because even though when we graduate college, we still continue to learn and some people go back to school years later to start something new or to continue something they once started and never finished. I’d maybe change the period to a “…”. Chapter 4 also discusses way of teaching MI theory and a couple ways I thought were interesting were, career day, field trips, and biographies. Having students consider their futures early on can help them to think about their dreams and what they might want to be when they become adults. I believe that you never really know what you want to do for the rest of your life because for me, doing one thing for the rest of my life doesn’t sound appealing at all, but because there are so many different types of jobs, finding out what it is that I love to do most will help me to find something that will suffice my want for change and variance. This is what I want for my students; a way for them to look at where they’ve come and look at where they want to go and not necessarily having to make decisions, but realizing what they do and don’t want to do. A lot of times what a student wants in middle school has nothing to do with what they end up doing, but having it on their mind early on will maybe help them to see that it’s not at all what they want.
Cooper
This chapter talked about how to teach multiple intelligences to young students. I particularly liked the quote he mentioned where he said that students enter school as question marks and leave as exclamation points. I feel that really speaks to the degree in which we are taught in schools to stay in our lane and if we are aren’t particularly intelligent in what would be considered core academic areas that we aren’t intelligent at all. In the chapter he goes over several different ways to introduce younger students to multiple intelligences first he makes the language easier to understand changing “linguistic intelligence” to “word smart” etc. He then goes on to ask the children inclusionary questions such as “have you read a book?” when the children respond yes he tells them that they are all “word smart”. The use of this exercise is to show students that they all have all 8 intelligences just to different degrees. Students then can be introduced to a series of games and role models having to do with the multiple intelligences. A “body smart” role model might be a professional athlete while a “music smart” role model might be a famous musician. While all of this is geared towards younger aged children I feel there are still some take away concepts that apply to all students, chiefly among them being the concept that students should never feel they aren’t intelligent because they don’t excel in a specific area. We as educators should take every opportunity to give them the option to work in an area of strength without closing the door on improving an area of weakness.
Abstract
Laura PulitoThis chapter introduced and explored ways for teachers to include lessons on the different types of intelligences in their classrooms. Armstrong advocates using a simple, direct five-minute introduction to MI theory followed by a visual of what he calls an “MI Pizza” that describes the eight intelligences. He asks students whether or not they consider themselves intelligent as a way to “hook” students into the topic. He also emphasizes the importance of teaching the MI model in all eight intelligences and provides a list of different examples and descriptions of how this can be done. Virginia’s CTE Resource Center provides a list of different ways for both students and teachers to learn about different intelligences as well as assess their own.
Synthesis
Laura PulitoJust about everyone in our class agreed that it is important to recognize the individual multiple intelligences of our students and to incorporate these intelligences regularly in the classroom. Scholastic.com provides a list of suggestions of activities as they relate to preferred intelligences. Many of us also mentioned the importance of having students become aware of their own intelligences (if they aren’t already aware of them) and to provide them with time to reflect upon their intelligences and to allow them to build upon them through enriching lessons that are tailored to their preferred methods of learning. At the same time, we recognized that it was also valuable to encourage students to devote some time to working on strengthening their “weaker” intelligences. In order for us to effectively encourage this as teachers, we need to take student input into high consideration and to always adhere to the needs of our students. While we agreed that it was important for students to be aware of all the different kinds of multiple intelligences, some of us were concerned that teaching our students about multiple intelligences would take away from the valuable time we have to teach content. Another concern many of us had regarding the teaching of multiple intelligences was that a lot of the activities the chapter suggests are geared more towards the elementary grades. We figured that by the time students reach the secondary level of their education, they will (hopefully) already have a good idea of which of their personal intelligences are strongest, but we want to make sure that they understand that it is normal and a good thing that all students have different strengths. Thus, as secondary education teachers, it will be most important for us to continue to let our students thrive through their preferred intelligences while giving them time to thoroughly understand and reflect upon their different learning styles.
Table of Contents
Sarah
In this chapter I learned that children benefit from instructional approaches that help them reflect upon their own learning experiences. They can reflect on their own learning experiences and relate them to multiple intelligences. To have students do this, a teacher has to introduce multiple intelligences by explaining it. I also learned that it is best to describe the intelligences using simple terms and by being inclusive, for example by saying who likes reading? I learned that as a teacher I should strive to teach students the multiple intelligences using all eight intelligences. This chapter impacted the way that I would teach the meaning behind multiple intelligences. I would think more about how I was going to introduce each one that would be inclusive since it would be easy to say something like “who is good at math? If yes you have logical intelligence” but that would leave out students that aren’t good at math or who feel as though they are bad at math. I would also have to do a lot of planning to make sure that besides being inclusive, I am also introducing each intelligence in a way that students with different intelligences understand. I have to introduce each intelligence using all eight intelligences which will not be an easy task. I would have to plan a time to introduce the multiple intelligences instead of introducing them when I felt it was necessary or when there was extra time at the end of a class period, for example on a test day.Cheyenne
The MI Pizza is my new favorite thing and I will use it forever in everything I do. I even drew it in a notebook and surrounded it with all the suggested questions because I want to remember it. Like, it is so so so important for students, for everyone really, to know that they are intelligent in some way, and the MI Pizza is an incredible way to do that. There is not a single person in this world that can answer ‘no’ to every single one of those questions, and it really highlights all the different ways that someone is intelligent. Maybe you’re more in tune with one area than another, but no matter what, the chances of you not fitting somewhere in every single category even a little bit are slim-to-none.
On the other hand, I’m not a huge fan of the activities it suggests to give students a better understanding of the MI concept, mostly because they’re all fairly time consuming. These are things that are far better suited for younger students, probably in the elementary level. In middle and high school, there just doesn’t seem like enough time at all to be able to take a few days to do these activities, and the reading suggestion for high school students doesn’t seem very inclusive towards non-linguistic intelligences. The MI Pizza is a fairly simple concept that can be looked at in a single class day and gives students the base they need to potentially start looking into it on their own. I can support and encourage students to look into it outside of class, but to spend too much time on it would, to me, be taking away from other actual class content.
Lydia
This chapter is about the fact that all students should understand that they are all intelligent in some way. If a student has a weakness in one area that does not necessarily mean that they are dumb. Students must understand that they are also smart in a variety of ways as well. This will affect me because it will push me to show others that they all have different abilities and they can all learn in different ways. As a teacher I must also encourage students to learn about their different intelligences. As a Social Studies teacher I could start off the first week with having the students learn what they are best at and to show their diversity.Some things that I could do to help students become interested in my lessons is to bring things into the classroom that will pique the student’s interests. Some of these things will include different field trips, or bring in a career day that will show that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Not only just teaching students about intelligences during the first week, I must find a way to incorporate the eight intelligences into the way that I teach. This will affect my classroom because if students have different choices of learning they will like the choices that they have. Another way to incorporate fun and interesting ways to learn in the classroom is create games that will highlight the eight ways of learning and being intelligent. Another interesting way to show students different ways of learning is to set up stations that correspond with the eight intelligences. I thought this was a creative way to bring new and interesting activities and learning tools into the lesson.
Cory
This chapter looked at the importance of learning multiple intelligences. But what made it less beneficial is that it focused mainly on elementary education when we are secondary education. But this is completely understandable. You need to build up your students when they are young. Our student’s self-esteems may be at their best when they are very young kids, probably about kindergarten. This means that we need to build their confidence and keep it at a young age, and this can be done by teaching them about the multiple intelligence model. If we point out which student’s intelligence is their strength when they are young, we can foster both their strengths and weaknesses. We can tailor our lessons to teach to a kid’s strength, but we can’t forget about their weaknesses. If we tell them they are stupid in a certain area, then they will continue to believe that. If we tell them and teach them how to work on a certain intelligence, then they will have the ability and motivation to do so. But this has to come at an early age. If we try to do so when they are in high school, they may reject what we have to say. At that age, they have embedded in their brains that they are truly incompetent in certain areas, and this is ridiculous in my opinion. Every student has the ability to learn just about anything, they just need the motivation and believe that they can. Yes, some things come easier to some rather than others, but they can still get to the same point. It’s similar to a famous quote I read on my CA’s board the other day, “A 12 minute mile is the same distance as a 6 minute mile.”Dominick
This chapter was geared more towards elementary and early childhood majors, but still managed to catch my interest. As a future educator I feel that this chapter should be read by all aspiring teachers because the author does bring up some interesting points. The author brings up a scenario in which a classroom of elementary school students are asked if they think they are smart. Everyone of them raises their hands, but later down the road in high school if a class is asked if they feel they are intelligent less than half the class does not raise their hands. In elementary school kids are going through the most important parts of their development as young learners. They need to be taught all of the different kinds of intelligences. Their strongest intelligence should also be identified early on and encouraged. It is a teacher’s responsibility to do everything in their power to help a child develop their strongest intelligence. Teachers can identify these different types of intelligences through classroom games and activities. However, they are also responsible for encouraging students to pursue the other intelligences as well. Students should never be told that they should not pursue a type of intelligence that they are not the strongest in. Students should be encouraged to pursue it because that’s what makes students well rounded. We must help them to bring balance to their intelligences, but also to encourage the one that they are the strongest in. Every student possesses all of the intelligences to some degree, it is our responsibility to continue building upon that balance among the others.Sara
In chapter four of Multiple Intelligences emphasis is put on the students input. By teaching students what the intelligences are they will be able to identify with them and understand which one works best for them. While it may not be possible, especially in a math classroom, to spend a lot of time on the intelligences, I think it is important that students understand what they are and how they apply to them. By asking the students where they think they fall and what they think they need it gives them a new perspective. Where they are used to teachers constant telling them what they need, they now have the chance to instead say what they need. This allows students to reflect on themselves and truly think about what they need and what is going to work for them.Of course if a teacher does take the time to learn the student’s different intelligences, they then also need to back them up. It is not enough to just know what works for the students, teachers than need to actually incorporate this into the lesson. By having this interaction and by teachers actually following through with it, it provides a sort of trust between the student and the teacher. It shows the student that the teacher is listening and truly wants them to succeed. This in turn could result in a student trying harder in a class because they know that the teacher cares is doing everything they can to help the student.
Katelin
This chapter explained how I could try to have students realize what each intelligences are and have them figure out which ones they have the most of. The first point would be to prove to them that they are all smart and have all eight intelligences in them, by creating questions to ask that are almost a universal yes. When making lesson plans, a goal is to ask myself how each of the eight intelligences are covered. Another step would be to ask students to reflect, which is always a great idea, and have them try to figure out where each intelligence was implemented. An even better idea is to ask students what method worked the best for them, or they preferred the most. I liked all the examples of how to put multiple intelligences into the classroom, but I still find it hard to do these with math. Math is very straightforward and having a career day is really not relevant unless it is a career that involves math. The examples I thought were all great and creative examples, but so so many I just kept saying that did not seem relevant to my classroom. I liked how the chapter ended with how if you internalize the theory, they will start using the vocabulary and make sense of their learning more. This is true, but again, we discussed how hard it is to put so much content into so little time, but we want to try to incorporate learning styles also. I just want to know how to do everything and still get it all done.Laura
I really appreciated this chapter because I think it’s important for students to be aware of the different kinds of multiple intelligences. I cannot recall any of my teachers (in elementary, middle school, or high school) ever mentioning Gardner’s theory, but I truly wish they had. I think that a teacher can foster a positive and respectful learning environment by introducing the concept of multiple intelligences and having students partake in an activity that explores the different intelligences. If students understand that everyone learns differently and get the chance to “test out” activities related to the different intelligences, they will be more likely to respect one another and may even gain a greater sense of self-esteem. For example, a mathematically inclined student might realize that his peer who isn’t so great at math has a talent for music. If the class hadn’t been introduced to the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, they may not have known about one another’s intelligences or talents and maybe wouldn’t have recognized their own intelligences as valuable. I do think that the secondary ed. classroom is more limited than the elementary school classroom in its potential ways to explore multiple intelligences (at least based on the examples given in this chapter), but I definitely think it’s still possible and important to make students aware of MI at the secondary level. It would be great for kids to learn about them sooner, however, so as to promote respect for the different intelligences sooner in schooling, but I understand that that may not always happen and that they could and should still be emphasized at the middle and high school levels.Shane
This chapter is primarily about getting young students to understand themselves. I found it super interesting how they did the experiment about how many kids feel they are intelligent when they are little compared to how many people think they are intelligent when they get older. I think as kids are younger teachers do a great job of emphasizing that they are all smart in their own ways and that they can all be intelligent and grow as learners. The part where kids found someone in their intelligence area and having them as a role model seemed like a great idea to me. It goes to show that all kids can have strengths and weaknesses and that even famous people have been through ups and downs. As kids get older they shouldn’t feel less intelligent they just need teachers who can properly motivate them and I think that is why this resonated with me. As a teacher it will be my job to do my job teaching and give them the proper information and tools, but to also give them hope, set goals and keep them on the right path as students. I think that if the majority of students say they feel less intelligent when they are older means the teachers are doing a bad job. All intelligences need to be seen in the same light whether they are popular at that given moment or not. We need to express to our students that every intelligence is important. All students need to get the concept that they are intelligent in one way or another.Rhi
I loved the quote that came about, “children go into school as question marks and leave school as periods” (p.45). I thought that was a really cool way to describe students growth from the beginning to the end, although I disagree a little that it just ends with a period because even though when we graduate college, we still continue to learn and some people go back to school years later to start something new or to continue something they once started and never finished. I’d maybe change the period to a “…”. Chapter 4 also discusses way of teaching MI theory and a couple ways I thought were interesting were, career day, field trips, and biographies. Having students consider their futures early on can help them to think about their dreams and what they might want to be when they become adults. I believe that you never really know what you want to do for the rest of your life because for me, doing one thing for the rest of my life doesn’t sound appealing at all, but because there are so many different types of jobs, finding out what it is that I love to do most will help me to find something that will suffice my want for change and variance. This is what I want for my students; a way for them to look at where they’ve come and look at where they want to go and not necessarily having to make decisions, but realizing what they do and don’t want to do. A lot of times what a student wants in middle school has nothing to do with what they end up doing, but having it on their mind early on will maybe help them to see that it’s not at all what they want.Cooper
This chapter talked about how to teach multiple intelligences to young students. I particularly liked the quote he mentioned where he said that students enter school as question marks and leave as exclamation points. I feel that really speaks to the degree in which we are taught in schools to stay in our lane and if we are aren’t particularly intelligent in what would be considered core academic areas that we aren’t intelligent at all. In the chapter he goes over several different ways to introduce younger students to multiple intelligences first he makes the language easier to understand changing “linguistic intelligence” to “word smart” etc. He then goes on to ask the children inclusionary questions such as “have you read a book?” when the children respond yes he tells them that they are all “word smart”. The use of this exercise is to show students that they all have all 8 intelligences just to different degrees. Students then can be introduced to a series of games and role models having to do with the multiple intelligences. A “body smart” role model might be a professional athlete while a “music smart” role model might be a famous musician. While all of this is geared towards younger aged children I feel there are still some take away concepts that apply to all students, chiefly among them being the concept that students should never feel they aren’t intelligent because they don’t excel in a specific area. We as educators should take every opportunity to give them the option to work in an area of strength without closing the door on improving an area of weakness.